Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Three) #10: Modern English

Note: For an index of all articles in all three Favorite Songs series, click here, then scroll down.

Who They Are: Modern English are an English post-punk/pop group formed in 1979 by Robbie Grey (vocals), Stephen Walker (keys), Gary McDowell (guitar), Michael Conroy (bass), and Richard Brown (drums). After self-releasing a single in 1979, Modern English were signed to the influential (and then-just-emerging) 4AD label, along with the likes of The Birthday Party, Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins, and many others. Their debut album, 1981’s Mesh & Lace, was an arty, airy, edgy platter, well in keeping with 4AD’s general aesthetic. But their second album, 1982’s After the Snow, was a completely different sort of beast, spawning the ubiquitous and much-beloved single “I Melt With You.” Following the release of 1984’s excellent Ricochet Days, which was very much of a piece with After the Snow, Modern English left 4AD and the core quintet began to fracture. Between 1995 and 2010, the group was an intermittent going concern, often with only Robbie Grey remaining from the original line-up; these incarnations of Modern English released four albums. In 2010, 80% of the original line-up reunited (missing only drummer Richard Brown), and have toured and recorded fairly consistently since then, releasing two excellent albums, Take Me to the Trees (2016) and the brand new 1 2 3 4.

When I First Heard Them: The obvious answer would be when “I Melt With You” was omnipresent on the radio, dance floors, television, and music journals, but I’m pretty sure that I actually had Mesh & Lace and After the Snow before that song became such a huge hit, drawn to them by actively following the 4AD roster sheet of the time. Regardless of how that initial time sequence went down, After the Snow and Ricochet Days were big favorites for me during the latter half of my Naval Academy days. Stop Start, the first non-4AD release, came out just before I graduated from Annapolis; I wasn’t much chuffed with it, and only loosely paid attention to the group’s ongoing activities until the mostly-original line-up reformed.

Why I Love Them: At their best, Modern English are capable of perfectly blending arty and accessible elements, and they’ve got a keen sense for ear-worm melodies that make their strongest songs stick in your noggin like nobody’s business. But for me, “at their best” means when the Grey-Walker-McDowell-Conroy quartet is working together. I’m a big believer in the ineffable magic of chemistry when it comes to musical ensembles, and those four artists do indeed become and make things greater than the sum of their parts when they collaborate. All four of them have distinctive and recognizable sounds, in terms of the instruments they deploy, and the textures and tones they pull from them. This effect was most ably demonstrated by their last two album releases, which picked up and built upon the creative pinnacle they’d achieved over a quarter-century earlier when they last all worked together on After the Snow and Ricochet Days. My top ten Modern English cuts cited below are all culled from those four albums accordingly; the core four of the group were also together for the debut album, Mesh & Lace, which I liked in its time, but in retrospect, it feels tentative and exploratory when compared to what was to come. I’ll blow any suspense right up front about where “I Melt With You” will rank, as I do not include it in my Top Ten; it’s a fine song, and I’m glad it made them some money and gave them some fame, but I’ve been so over-exposed to it for so long that I don’t often feel any need to hear it again, as an active listening choice, though I don’t mind or complain when do hear it, as happens pretty regularly, even all these years on.

#10. “You’re Corrupt,” from Take Me to the Trees (2016)